Etta watched her father pull away from the curb after one last, long hug. He’d dropped her off after an early dinner, to head back to his hotel and pack up for an early start on his drive back to Minnesota. She was going to miss her father’s encouragement and the stability he provided, but she wouldn’t miss the distressed look he sometimes had when he glanced her way unnoticed. Although he tried to hide it, he saw her as walking wounded, and maybe she was, but she didn’t need the constant reminder if she was going to heal. As she waved to him as he drove down the street, she thought that she was now, once and for all, free. She was free of her past. Her father had been the last person who would know anything of what had happened to her. Unless she went around blabbing things to people, she was free to start her life over fresh and clean of any stain of controversy or anyone’s disdain. Nobody would know and nobody would need to know.
Etta thought of all her father had given up for her. She stood out on the edge of the curb, hands on her hips, looking up at the sky with the puffy white clouds rolling by. She was determined to make the new life he’d given up his career for into a bright and shiny thing. And she was going to start living life to its fullest, right here in Marquette. And what a beautiful town to do it in. She loved that the house she’d moved into was walking distance to the Lake and all that entailed. Oh sure, she had friends who had gone to Duluth for college and had “frozen their hinnies off”, as they put it, but she wasn’t afraid of a little cold. And she couldn’t wait to start doing her daily four-mile run along Lakeshore Drive.
She’d gone out from the hotel this morning along the lakeshore and had run past a little night-spot, CoCo’s. Or was it a day-spot? She wasn’t sure. It was certainly a hopping place on a hot and humid Sunday morning and it looked interesting. She decided she’d walk over the three or four blocks to Coco’s and see what kind of nightlife it held there on a hot, summer evening. Who knew? Maybe they’d even have air conditioning, although the night air was starting to cool a little. Of course, now that she was done moving, it would cool off. She went upstairs, washed her face, put on some nice-looking shoes, a little lipstick, fixed her ponytail and headed off for CoCo’s.
She walked into the building not really knowing what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. It was air conditioned, thank God. It was really just a giant, open room, with a high, white, painted ceiling, rafters going from the bottom of the walls to the tip of the ceiling. Along one wall was a small stage against a wide picture window, which overlooked the expansive view of Lake Superior. Hmmm, perhaps this had been a wealthy family’s living room in its hay-day? Interesting.
Along another side of the large, open room with a hardwood floor, which had obviously seen much dancing, was a doorway which led into the kitchen and at the back of the room was a small stand-to-drink bar. All across the dance floor were small round tables and the typical stackable chairs common to many a bar room. The most impressive thing about the room were the bright and vibrant colors someone had chosen as the décor. One wall was the color of muskmelon, another the color of cantaloupe, another the color of watermelon, obviously a “melonthemed” painting scheme, which would’ve been tacky in a smaller space.
There were little knick-knacks of African-themes all over the place, by the cash register, a little hostess stand when you walked in, a few tribal masks on the walls. And neon. Neon signs were everywhere, including florescent lights around a chalkboard that held a listing of each day and what the theme was for each day. Etta was especially happy to see that Thursdays were apparently “Ladies Night. Perhaps she and her roommates could have fun here together some evening. Yes, she was probably going to really like this place. She just hoped she liked the atmosphere and the food, too.
From the board, she saw that the big act for tonight was a live show called “JohnnyK’s Mind Power”. And that was enough to suck her in. Her curiosity wanted to know what Johnny had for an act and what all that entailed. But it certainly sounded intriguing. And the best thing was there was no cover. Bonus!
Etta found a small table toward the outside edge of the room, about two rows of tables back from the stage and sat down. A friendly, young, college-aged waiter almost immediately came up to her. “What can I get for you, honey?”
“Do you have any pineapple?”
“Sure, do. Look at this place! And you ask if we have pineapple. What would you like made with pineapple?”
“How about a pineapple daiquiri, light on the rum, heavy on the pineapple.”
“You got it. Be right back.” Almost two minutes later, the server returned with a giant drink with fresh pineapple and slushy ice. “That’ll be $4.” Etta turned to grab some money from the small purse that was strapped around her, when a tall man with dark features, fairly long sleek black hair sat down at her table, handed money to the waiter. “Put that purse away. Here’s payment in full, Kevin. I’ll pay for the lady’s drinks tonight, k?”
Etta was dumbfounded. “Well, thank you, but you really don’t need to. I can pay my own way …. Uh …. I didn’t catch your name,” gesturing towards the chair next to her. “And please, have a seat. Don’t be so shy,” she said, with a glib look on her face.
“Tom, and it’s nice to meet you …. Uh ….I didn’t catch your…” He held out his hand to shake.
Etta met his firm handshake with one of her own. “Let’s say, for tonight, it’s Jane, shall we, Tom?” She glanced down to her drink and took a giant sip from the refreshing drink. Looking back up, she leaned back in her chair, in a very, just-one-the-guys type of stance. “So, hot enough for ya?”
“Yeah, you could say that, but it’s cooling down pretty nice tonight. This will probably be the last steamer like this yet this summer, so we gotta enjoy it all while it lasts, ya know? So I haven’t seen you around these parts before. And I would’ve noticed you.” He gave her a little wink, as he took a swig of his beer. “So where have you been hiding?” He was unashamedly flirting with her, as he took another draw from his bottle of Corona.
“A new arrival. Fresh meat, I suppose. Are the waters safe?” Etta said, with her eyebrows raised and a giant grin on her face.
He grinned right back. Oh a smart one! I like the smart ones. “Not in here. Coco’s is called The Market of Marquette for a reason. Haven’t you heard? Or are you too new to be wary yet?”
Her eyes got wide. “No, I hadn’t heard that, but I’ve been here less than 24 hours, so I’m a little behind, I suppose.”
The lights in the room went down suddenly, the spotlight snapped onto the stage and a young man in a black T-shirt, black jeans, dress shoes and sleek sunglasses stood the stage. Dramatic music played with a final drumroll and the young man spoke into the microphone, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please give me your attention and you shall be amazed at the spectacle and power that the mind and body behold.”
Tom leaned over, whispering. “Oh, this is gonna be good.” She returned his smile and just laughed. The young man removed the microphone, took off the sunglasses, placed them on a table off to the side of the stage and went on. “I’m JohnnyK and I’m going to be your host for this evening’s entertainment. My specialty is harnessing the mind and body connection through the use of hypnosis. And my goal tonight is to educate and surprise. Many of you have amazing abilities, right here in this audience that you’re not even aware you possess.”
Etta’s eyes widened as she looked at her table companion. “Oh, no. This is NOT gonna be good. Audience participation.” And at that, Tom started laughing, just from the deer-in-the-headlights look on her face. She slapped his arm lightly. “Stop laughing!” She smiled, shyly.
JohnnyK went on with his speech. “Now many of you probably don’t believe in the power of hypnosis and believe that it’s just a figment of one’s imagination. Am I correct? Could I have a show of hands of those that don’t believe they can be hypnotized?”
Several people surrounding their table raised their hands. Etta turned to Tom. “They’re all suckers. One born every minute.” He chuckled slightly then raised a fist to his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud.
JohnnyK went on, asking six or seven of the people who had their hands raised to join him on stage, where, behind him, there were several chairs neatly lined up in a row. He asked them to sit. He stood to the side, with his microphone, and went on with a speech about how they didn’t think they could be hypnotized. He asked them all to stare at the spinning disco ball on the ceiling for two seconds, then at the count of three, they would all fall asleep, then counted “One, two, three” and all of the people sitting in the chairs instantly fell asleep, leaning on each other with their heads lolled back or to the side, and the crowd roared with laughter.
Then JohnnyK turned to the audience. “Shall we have some fun now?” The audience roared in laughter and shouted out a unanimous “Yes!” in return.
Then on the count of three, Johnny had all the participants awaken. After he explained to all the participants that clearly they were far too brilliant to have been hypnotized by such a snake-oil salesman, he asked a group of three young girls to tell him what they thought of the experience so far. They explained to him that they didn’t think he’d hypnotized them. “Oh, because, if I had hypnotized you that would mean that I have total control over you like some sadistic freak, right? I could make you do whatever I wanted at the drop of ….” Then he snapped his fingers and all three girls instantaneously fell asleep. He turned to the audience. “Nope, they can’t be hypnotized.” The crowd, again, roared with laughter.
JohnnyK awoke all of the participants and explained to them that just the young men of the group, would, at the count of three, all feel that their chairs were stinging their butts. And on the count of three, all of the young men in the group jumped from their chairs and turned around to check their butts for some stinging insect.
The act continued on in this fashion for quite some time. At one point participants were convinced that their belts were snakes. Another time they were ballet dancers. With that the people on stage twirled and did leaps that were, really quite hilarious, mainly because they were so bad. He had some people convinced that their bellybuttons had disappeared, all to tumults of laughter. As his final conclusion, JohnnyK said he could even make people fall in love while under hypnosis. This time he didn’t ask for volunteers, but instead wandered through the audience looking for unwilling participants that would be his final victims for the evening. At last, he strolled over to the table where Tom and Etta were sitting and asked Etta, into the microphone, “How long have you known this young man at the table with you?”
“About ten minutes. His name’s Tom.”
“Okay. Tom, you don’t really know this woman you’re sitting with, is that correct? You just met, is that right?”
“Yes, about ten minutes. Her name’s Jane.”
“Isn’t that cute? Tom and Jane, how quaintly American. Does anyone think Tom and Jane will fall in love under hypnosis after ten minutes of knowing each other? Can that really be done? Does anyone want to see that?” JohnnyK was really working at revving up the audience to hound them into participating. And it was working.
The crowd began to chant now, “Tom and Jane! Tom and Jane!”
Etta looked at him pleadingly. “Oh, great, I get a local hero.”
He leaned over. “Sorry, I didn’t know.” She just shrugged her shoulders. It was clear there wasn’t going to be a way to get out this without some embarrassment. The only redeeming quality to this whole thing was that nobody in the entire place knew her at all, so she was free, the way she’d thought of herself earlier, to do anything she wanted. And although she didn’t really want to be embarrassed by JohnnyK, she was having a good time. His act was funny and she had been having fun.
The crowd kept chanting “Tom and Jane” over and over until Etta finally relented. “Oh, what the hell!” And the crowd cheered.
Etta took her purse off her shoulder and set it on the table. Tommy took her hand and led her around the surrounding tables until they stood on stage with JohnnyK. He held her hand as they stood together on stage. JohnnyK went on with his act. “Okay, Tom. Jane. Wow, I can’t believe you have such boring names!” He leaned the microwave toward Etta. “Gee, thanks!” Johnny patted her on the shoulder. “It’s okay. You can’t help it if you’re boring. Now, I’d like you two perfect strangers to stand facing each other, holding each other’s hands, okay? Awwww, don’t they make a nice-looking couple?” he asked the audience.
At this question, the crowd replied with a loud “Awwwww” of their own. Johnny commented, “I think they like you. So, I want you to stare into each other’s eyes. You’ve never kissed, am I right about that?” he asked Tom. “No, we just met.”
JohnnyK turned to Etta and asked, “And if I asked you to kiss this man right now in front of this audience, what would your response be?”
“Ummm… No way in hell.” Tommy said, “Gee, thanks,” which made the crowd roar with laughter. JohnnyK just smiled.
Continuing on, Johnny said, “Because you don’t know him, you’ve never kissed. You don’t know him, you’ve barely even talked, and you certainly would not go crazy for this man and try to get his clothes off, especially not in front of others, right?”
“Right. No way, no how.”
“Okay.” There was a pause. “So look deeply into each other’s eyes. And keep looking into each other’s eyes until I tell you to stop. So on the count of three, when I snap my fingers, I want you to stand where you are, but close your eyes and fall into a deep, deep sleep.” He began counting, “One – Two – Three”, snapped his fingers.Now, under hypnosis, Etta and Tommy stood on stage, totally asleep with their eyes closed.
“Tom and Jane. You are in a deep, deep sleep. Now, when I count to three, on the count of three, I want you to open your eyes, look deeply into each other’s eyes. All you will see will be each other. You will not notice anyone else in the room and will believe you are totally alone with each other. You will feel a deep passionate love for each other that drives your sexual needs to their peak. You will want those needs to be satisfied with the other person, kiss the other person, caress, hold each other close and express the love you have in your heart toward each other in a way that gives great pleasure to the other person, even if that means removing each other’s clothes. And you’ll continue this way until I utter the word STOP. When I say stop, you will, again, fall into a deep, deep sleep. One, Two, Three.”
Upon the word three, Etta and Tom opened their eyes, looked in each other’s eyes and immediately grabbed for each other. They desperately sought out each other’s mouths, kissing and caressing each other, Etta’s hands going to Tom’s hair and dragging him down to her mouth. Tom’s hands were all over Etta, caressing her breasts, massaging her bottom, as she wrapped her legs around Tommy’s legs. Etta was literally trying to scale Tommy’s body to get closer to him, wrapping her arms and legs around him as though he were a tree she desperately needed to climb. Tom’s hands began to move up Etta’s T-shirt and he began to work at detaching the clasp of her bra, which was noticeable to the entire audience. Etta’s hands were now going between their bodies and she was beginning to work the button apart on Tommy’s jeans when JohnnyK abruptly said “Stop”. At this word, Etta’s left leg returned to the ground, her head lolled against Tommy’s chest and Tommy’s head lolled to Etta’s shoulder. Both of their arms now hung at their sides.
“Now at my count of three, you will awaken, return to your true selves, the people who had just met for ten minutes earlier this evening and you will remember none of what occurred on stage here tonight. You will now notice the rest of the audience and will not recall ever having touched or kissed one another. One, Two, Three”. And on the count of three, Etta raised her head, looked around questioningly and returned to her normal poised self. Tom raised his head as well, similarly questioning his surroundings.
JohnnyK then asked Etta, “So Jane, are you sure you haven’t ever met this man until this evening? You’ve never kissed him?”
“Of course not. I just met him. And my name’s Etta, not Jane.” With that response, Etta went back to her table, picked up her purse and walked out the back entrance and the audience roared with laughter.
As Tom heard her response, the name she’d told the performer seemed to ring in his mind as familiar in some way, but his mind was still a little groggy. Then suddenly, it hit him where he’d heard that name before. His sister, Izzy, had said that was her new roommate’s name, which was such an unusual name, it had stuck in his mind. JohnnyK asked him a question, “And you’ve still never kissed this woman? Is that right?”
“No, I didn’t do a thing.” The crowd roared with laughter. “Hey man, I gotta go.” He stepped off the stage and ran after Etta out the back entrance.